By Rick Schwertfeger Captain, Frontier Partisans Southern Command * “I hope you aren’t one of those Sullivans from Sullivan’s Hollow!’ Perplexed by this reaction to my name, I remember saying, ‘Well yes, I am.’ It was nothing special to me then as a child, because I thought the world was like Sullivan’s Hollow. But years later I read that, … [Read more...] about The Meanest Valley In America

Raising hell with the hippies and the cowboys They don’t care about no trends They don’t care about songs that sell — Cody Jinx * It’s Oregon Country Fair for shitkicker music... — Ceili Cornelius * Given that the whole damn West is burning, and the Republic seems to be careening into a ditch at highball speed, it’s all too easy to fall … [Read more...] about Under The Big Sky Or Bust

A good story is like a scenic trail — it tends to attract a crowd. I was fixin’ to make my next podcast series on the Pleasant Valley War in Arizona in the 1880s — I’ve done a fair bit the preliminary reading on it. Found out today that Black Barrel Media’s excellent Legends of the West Podcast beat me to it. They just dropped Episode 1 — … [Read more...] about This War!… Or Maybe Not

The most recent series of The Frontier Partisans Podcast explores the life of Jim Bridger. Find the podcast on Podbean at https://frontierpartisans.podbean.com/ or on Spotify. * A couple of years ago, the ownership of The Nugget Newspaper hosted a gathering of the chiefs of their roster of community newspapers, hailing from Washington and Oregon … [Read more...] about Me and Jim Bridger — New Frontier Partisans Podcast is Live

Captain Rick Schwertfeger has been a busy scout these past few days, running from Lake George down to Florida. Good thing he’s an endurance athlete... He kicked up a documentary in the works on one of the great set-pieces of Frontier Partisan history — the Siege of Fort William Henry. Yes, THAT siege, the one in The Last of the Mohicans. From … [Read more...] about Working The Trapline — Made Like That

This is so damn cool: From Ancient Origins: A team of archaeologists and anthropologists from the University of Michigan found something highly unusual while exploring the underwater realms of Lake Huron in the Great Lakes region. Supervised by their team leader, anthropologist John O’Shea, they were digging on the Alpena-Amberley Ridge, a … [Read more...] about Working The Trapline — Traveling Obsidian And Podcast Update

Hey pards — there’s a new Sidetrails podcast up on our Patreon page. The Loretto Incident recounts one of the more romantic episodes of the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade, when a parlay with the Blackfeet went bad and Jim Bridger ended up with “some feathers in his ass...” Frontier Partisans patrons help keep the campfire burning. If ye wish to join … [Read more...] about Sidetrails — The Loretto Incident

I have long appreciated the work of Jack Murphy. A U.S. Army Ranger/Special Forces veteran, he has become a journalist, author and podcaster — and a damn good one. He’s a truth-teller and a straight shooter. Murphy and Dave Parke host The Team House Podcast, which is available on all podcast hosting services and in-studio on Youtube. On my last … [Read more...] about The Team House — Eagle Down

What comes to mind when you think of the classic Frontier Partisan rifle? The “Kentucky” Long Rifle, surely. The Hawken, without a doubt. The Sharps Big .50 Buffalo Rifle, of course. The Winchester ’73 — the “Gun That Won The West.” I’d have to include the Springfield Trapdoor .45-70 that Geronimo used to scourge Mexican vaqueros, vigilantes and … [Read more...] about Firearms Of The Frontier Partisans — The Mighty Mauser

Well, you know a story like this is gonna send me off on a sidetrail into the deep woods... I am a fan of the blog Saving Country Music, which, as the title might imply, carries the torch for the real deal vs. the hideous manufactured crap that passes these days for “mainstream country music.” The blogger, who goes by the handle Trigger, … [Read more...] about Kaintuck Cocaine — Done Got Outta Hand